Video: Passing photos to Photoshop with presets

If you have been following along with me through the course, you know that when you pass a raw file from Lightroom to Photoshop for further editing, the file is rendered into a pixel-based image, one that you can work with in a pixel editor like Photoshop. The type of file that is passed from Lightroom to Photoshop, and ultimately the type of file that ends up in your Lightroom catalog, is determined by which set of file options you choose for a Lightroom to Photoshop handoff. There is the default set of options that's applied when you press Cmd+E on the Mac or Ctrl+ E on the PC to start the hand off, but if you like, you can create multiple additional sets of file options for passing files from Lightroom to Photoshop, and you can choose one of those instead.

By combining Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, you can take full advantage of each program's capabilities. Use Lightroom for photo organizing, sharing, and basic image enhancement. When you need more advanced retouching and editing features, one click sends a photo from Lightroom to Photoshop.

In this course, photographer and author Jan Kabili shows how to combine both programs. The course begins with details on how to set up the two programs for maximum compatibility. The course then covers strategies for working with photos in a variety of formats, sending them from Lightroom to Photoshop to viewing the edited results in Lightroom. The final chapter demonstrates several real-world scenarios for using Lightroom and Photoshop together.

Passing photos to Photoshop with presets

If you have been following along with me through the course, you know that whenyou pass a raw file from Lightroom to Photoshop for further editing, the fileis rendered into a pixel-based image, one that you can work with in a pixeleditor like Photoshop.The type of file that is passed from Lightroom to Photoshop, and ultimately thetype of file that ends up in your Lightroom catalog, is determined by which setof file options you choose for a Lightroom to Photoshop handoff.There is the default set of options that's applied when you press Cmd+E onthe Mac or Ctrl+ E on the PC to start the hand off, but if you like, you cancreate multiple additional sets of file options for passing files from Lightroomto Photoshop, and you can choose one of those instead.

In the last movie, we created one of those additional external editing sets offile options for Photoshop, and in this movie, we are going to apply thatpreset to a raw file.As I do that you'll see that the workflow with a raw file is the same whetheryou apply the default file options or an additional set of file options.So here on Lightroom's Develop module, I am going to optimize this photo bychoosing some Develop settings.If you are following along you can choose any settings that look good to you.

Now I see something I want to do the image that I know I need to go toPhotoshop for, and that is this lamppost in the lion's mouth is driving me crazy.I really want to remove it.So for that I am going to jump to Photoshop and use the Content-Aware Patch tool,which is tailor-made for this job.I'll go up to the Photo menu and choose Edit In.Now in the movies so far, I've just chosen the first option in this menu.This would apply the default file options that I chose in Lightroom's externalediting preferences. But instead, I want to apply this additional set of externalediting options that we created in the last movie. And I saved that as a preset,and you can see that preset right here in the second section of this menu.

By the way, I could have multiple presets for Photoshop CS6. If I also hadPhotoshop CS5 on this computer and there was a special reason to use that, Icould have a preset for Photoshop CS5. I could have presets for PhotoshopElements, and presets for third party programs as well.I'll click this preset, and that renders the file on its way over to Photoshopusing the options in my additional external editor preset.Behind the scenes, Camera Raw has rendered my raw file into a pixel-based imagethat's being held in memory until I save it here in Photoshop.

And down at the bottom of the Photoshop document window, you can see thatthis pixel-based version of the photo is in the ProPhoto color space, and ithas 16 bits per channel, both properties that I specified in my additionalexternal editor preset.I'll make a change here in Photoshop. With my Patch tool selected, I'm goingto make a new layer over here on the Layers panel by clicking the Create New Layer button.And with that new layer selected I'll check my options for the Patch tool.I do want to sample all layers, and I want to make sure that the Patch menu isset to Content Aware.

And then I'll come into the image and I'll try to draw a selection around justthe lamppost. And then I'll click inside the selection and I'll drag to a cleanarea of sky pixels, and I'll release my mouse.And right away Photoshop succeeds in covering the lamppost and blending thepatch in with the surroundings pixels.I'll press Cmd+D on the Mac, Ctrl+D on the PC to deselect.So let's say I am done editing in Photoshop, at this point I'll save the image.I'll press Cmd+S on the Mac, Ctrl+S on the PC.

And now if you look at the document tab you can see that the pixel-based versionis a PSD file, which is the file format that I specified in my additionalexternal editor preset that I applied here.And the file name change comes from the file naming convention that I set upearlier in the course, in Lightroom's external editing preferences.I am going to close the file from Photoshop and go back to Lightroom.Here in Lightroom you can see, in the film strip, there are now two files.The one that's selected, the one we see up here, is the PSD copy of the file.

This copy has my Lightroom adjustments embedded in it in a way that they can't be edited.It also has the Photoshop adjustment that I made, the removal of the lamppostfrom the lion's mouth.And there is also the original file, the DNG raw file, right next to it.This original has my Lightroom adjustments, but it doesn't have thePhotoshop adjustments.And if I want to I can reset my Lightroom adjustments by clicking this resetbutton, and now my original DNG is the way it was when we started this lesson.So that's the workflow for applying an additional external editor preset forPhotoshop to a raw file, when you hand the file off from Lightroom to Photoshop.

In the next movie, we'll see what happens when we do the same thing startingwith a non-raw file.

There are currently no FAQs about Using Lightroom and Photoshop Together.

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